Global Action to #DefendWorldHeritage

Observer Tree and Still Wild Still Threatened are joining with the Bob Brown Foundation and the Australian Marine Conservation Society to bring together people around the world in strong global message of support for protecting Australia’s World Heritage sites.

In just a few weeks the World Heritage Committee will decide the fate of two of Australia’s most iconic and significant environments; Tasmania’s forests and the Great Barrier Reef. Join with thousands of others from June 13-15th in our Global Action….

Here’s how to take part.

Plan to get together sometime between June 13- 15th (invite your friends around for dinner, have a morning tea at your workplace or school, organise an event at your university, local hall or cinema or simply join us online)

At your event, watch 30 mins of short films about defending our World Heritage forests and reef, which we will provide.

Get everyone to join the online action.

Take a photo of yourselves with a sign

Upload the photo to our social media site.

We’ll do the rest to ensure your voices join thousands of others around the globe.

The Forests

Many of you helped with the successful campaign to ensure some of Tasmania’s most spectacular forests were finally protected as World Heritage in 2013.

Now less than a year later, the Australian Governmnet is taking an unprecedented action: attempting to remove 74,000 hectares of forest out of the World Heritage Area, opening them up for destruction. If the government is successful, it sets a chilling international precedent that threatens the very integrity of World Heritage everywhere.

The Great Barrier Reef is one of the natural wonders of the world. But it is under threat from the most widespread, rapid and damaging set of industrial developments in Queensland’s history. The Queensland Government is fast-tracking mega port developments, dredging and dumping of millions of tonnes of seabed and rock, and encouraging a shipping superhighway. The Australian Government has approved the world’s biggest coal port at Abbot Point, 50 km from the Whitsunday Islands.

In 2013 the World Heritage Committee warned that without urgent management improvements, the Great Barrier Reef could land on its List of World Heritage in Danger. At the June meeting in Doha the World Heritage Committee will vote on the future of the reef. The Australian Marine Conservation Society is urging Australian governments to strengthen protection for the Great Barrier Reef ahead of the World Heritage Committee’s major annual meeting.

For more information on the Fight for the Reef campaign visit: http://fightforthereef.org.au/

Join us and Take Action for World Heritage!

Feel free to contact me with any questions however big or small: observertree2011@gmail.com